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Microsoft and 343 Industries have granted Xbox One preview members with an early Christmas gift after the studios confirmed plans to launch the Halo 5: Guardians beta today.

Due to go live for all players who purchased Halo: The Master Chief Collection on December 29, this pre-emptive, three-day bout of testing is designed to stress the servers and various network features before the main event in ten days time. As this early beta is invite-only, those who are participants can expect to find a message from 343 with two codes in their inbox with instructions to download and install the vertical slice.

Essentially, this will provide valuable feedback for Microsoft who are no doubt mindful of the long-running multiplayer problems that plagued Halo: MCC when it released earlier this year. Here’s hoping this will serve as the perfect platform for the publisher to take into account those online-centric issues when the beta goes live for preview members at 4PM ET.

Earlier this year, 343 published a brief rundown (which you can check out below) of the upcoming multiplayer testing, hinting at what players can expect in this early build of Halo 5: Guardians. The studio’s sequel is expected to drop in its fully-fledged state at some point next year.

The beta’s going to focus on multiplayer, but if you look in the Master Chief Collection, however, we do start to drop a few hints – we’ve got some stuff with Locke, who’s a central character in Halo 5, turning up in the cinematics, and if you remember the terminals in the first Halo Anniversary that focused around Guilty Spark, our terminals this time focus around the Arbiter and tell you a bit more about his story. So similar to the first Anniversary, you’re going to start getting some hints into exactly what you’re talking about.